Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the Northern Elders’ Forum has vowed to scrutinise the presidential candidates of all parties before endorsement.
The Spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said they won’t repeat the 2015 mistake in the upcoming 2023 elections.
Baba-Ahmed who said this when he appeared on Channels TV Politics Today, said all presidential candidates will be subjected to rigorous a process.
The NEF spokesperson said all the candidates will need to convince the forum of their plans for Nigeria before getting their endorsement.
Baba-Ahmed stated that the northern elders made a terrible mistake in 2015 when they charged the people to cede their bloc votes to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) without requesting his blueprint.
He said, “We will subject all candidates including Atiku, Tinubu, Obi through a rigorous process and they had better be willing because, believe me, we carry the responsibility on our shoulders to advise people in the north where to go. I am not saying this to impress anybody. We will exercise that responsibility seriously.
“What we promise not to do this time around was not to repeat what we did in 2015 and say ‘Vote for only Sai Baba” where we escort him to the villa but failed to sit him down and ask what he planned to do. It would no longer be about fixing the economy, security and the fight against Boko Haram, They must be specific.
“Buhari got away with it in 2015 and in 2019, we campaigned against him, saying this time he has failed and won’t be given another chance. Today, look at where the country is. We are not going to make that mistake again.”
